School programs take new tack on fundraising

Wrangell’s extracurricular youth programs will be getting a boost beginning this summer with the help of local stores.

Bobs’ IGA and City Market both will allow shoppers to conveniently donate spare change toward the public schools’ Booster Club activities.

“It’s set up with both stores, where people come in and round up their purchase to the nearest dollar,” explained Wrangell secondary schools principal Bill Schwan. “The stores have both agreed that that money would go toward our booster activity accounts.”

It is a hands-off approach to a fundraising method Schwan, entering his second year here in Wrangell, has used previously at other posts in the Lower 48. His hope is to change the way local students raise money for their clubs and sports teams.

Currently, much of the effort is scattershot, with students often going door-to-door to solicit donations. Schwan would like to see that end for several reasons. One is accountability, making contributions easier to keep track of and plan around. Another is a safety consideration for the students, as well as taking pressure off from their time.

Pressure might also be taken off the community’s generosity by having clubs focus instead on a single fundraiser or project each year instead. In this regard, clubs would follow a pattern set by the schools’ wrestling program, which holds an annual fundraising dinner. Schwan would also encourage students to take on community service projects as a group or team, keeping them connected to the community.

Signs are being made for the grocery stores’ registers, informing shoppers they can contribute to local schools. Those using the debit or credit cards have the option to round up their purchase, an option made available by recent upgrades both stores have undertaken. Bobs’ IGA unrolled its participation in the booster program this week, and City Market is expected to follow suit soon.

Money collected at these stores will then be routed to a discretionary fund for the principal or activities director to use.

“It’s really kind of an endless access for funds,” Schwan explained. “If we have a kid that doesn’t have tennis shoes, or we have a sports team that needs a piece of equipment, or travel, transportation.”

The other benefit of this approach is allowing funds to cover any program as needs come up.

“Any activity that we have,” Schwan said. “That’s the other nice thing about it, it’s not discriminatory, not one or the other, it’s everybody.”

Along with this, the school system will be arranging a formal Booster Club for its activities. “My goal is through the Booster Club we will have officers, we will have a parent group. So that if a team comes in and needs whatever, the coach would come up, present it to the group, they would look at it,” said Schwan.

Particularly as the public school system braces for cuts to state funding, there is a need to streamline the finances of extracurricular programming. Activity fees and school allotments help support facility upkeep and travel funds, but additional funds raised by students help fill in the gaps.

“I just thought it was a different way to do it,” said Schwan.